I think these days Clojure is a nicer way to easy into the Java ecosystem, because you can explore existing Java libraries interactively.

Here is a nice demonstration of what can you expect, if you want to build a web app:

https://youtu.be/LcpbBth7FaQ?si=PCZijF-JRmp0xxbz

If you add https://htmx.org/ into the mix, then you can build highly interactive applications, with a lot less complexity compared to building a purely data API consumed by some JavaScript frontend framework (React/Svelte/SolidJS and even ClojureScript)

Also, if you learn Clojure, you get a lot more benefits. Shorter programs, which are easier to reason about and hence easier to maintain, etc.

One of the most common web frameworks used is Spring Boot - here is their quickstart: https://spring.io/quickstart

Newer alternatives are: https://micronaut.io/ and https://quarkus.io/

If you want to have something really simple look at Javalin: https://javalin.io/